Inside eRA for Partners, September 6, 2003 (Volume 3, Issue 6)

eRA to Become HHS Research Grants Administration System

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that eRA has the technology and business process capability to become the DHHS enterprise system for research grants management. Dr. Ed Sontag, assistant secretary for Administration and Management, announced this decision on August 11, 2003, in a memorandum to the heads of all Operating Divisions (OPDIVs). The Grants Administration, Tracking and Evaluation System (GATES), developed by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), will become the central system for service delivery grants, formula grants, entitlement grants, and block grants.

By using the NIH and ACF systems as service providers for the entire Department, HHS will be able to:

• streamline work processes to provide improved services to citizens    
• capitalize on existing advanced technology and best practices    
• create an opportunity for cost-effective, intra-agency sharing and elimination of redundant spending    
• provide a single point-of-interface with Grants.gov and the HHS Unified Financial Management System    
• maintain reliable and common data across OPDIVs    
• simplify the implementation of new policies and regulations

As a first step in achieving the consolidation, each grant-making OPDIV must prepare a system migration plan by October 31, 2003. The plans are to identify the systems that will migrate to eRA and those that will migrate to GATES. In addition, the OPDIVs have to provide dates and schedules as well as a detailed requirements analysis. Since the Department goal is to retire the existing OPDIV systems, no further development dollars can be invested in migrating systems.

Sontag’s memorandum also stipulates that all OPDIV/STAFFDIV grant award data (award number, project title, abstract, etc.) must be posted to the NIH CRISP database. Research grant award posting will begin in October 2003, service grant award posting in October 2004, and all DHHS grant award posting in FY 2005.

The acting director of the Office of Grants Management and Policy will be responsible for facilitating discussions between eRA/GATES and the OPDIV/STAFFDIVs regarding requirements, business process changes, eRA/GATES accommodations, priorities, timetables and other issues.

NIH Seeks Early Adopters of Competitive e-Applications

eRA currently is seeking volunteers to take part in the first round of electronic submission of live, competitive applications. The eRA pilot, scheduled to coincide with NIH’s October and November receipt dates, will be conducted on a production-level system designed to accept applications through Grants.gov or directly from commercial vendors participating in the project. See the article in last month’s Partners for information about submission methods.

In preparation for the pilot, eRA has been working with six eRA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awardees that are collaborating with the NIH to build tools to assist grantees with the creation and submission of electronic applications. CGAP staff has established a test/pilot site, has successfully registered and built the computer-to-computer communications infrastructure, and has processed transactions to and from participating systems. Currently, the team is focusing on the implementation of business rules and validations inherent in the PHS 398 application as stipulated in the NIH application kit and as required by eRA data structures.

eRA also continues to upgrade internal systems to be able to route the electronic applications through the NIH Receipt and Referral process without reverting to paper at any point. Modifications to support paperless NIH systems are scheduled to be completed in time for the October/November pilot.

To communicate directly with the CGAP interface, volunteer institutions will work with one of the SBIR awardees or enable their own systems to meet the specifications of the CGAP interface. For institutions interested in participating in the pilot, NIH will issue an information kit with sample code and details of the technology needed to communicate electronically with eRA. The NIH will manage the applications of all volunteer participants to eliminate the risk of missed deadlines and to protect applicants from any possible “glitches.” The CGAP team will assist applicant institutions and grantees with each step of the electronic submission. In addition, the upgraded Commons system will provide a new status inquiry function that will allow submitters to track the progress of their electronic applications through the system. NIH staff will be on call throughout the pilot.

Concurrent with work on the NIH CGAP, eRA continues to collaborate with the federal Grants.gov initiative in the development of an electronic application receipt and management capability. This summer, Grants.gov successfully completed a pilot based on the standard Core application. At present, eRA is meeting with the Grants.gov team to define and implement the additional data needed for the form PHS 398 equivalent. NIH also is looking for volunteers to use the Grants.gov storefront to download, complete and submit applications. In addition, NIH will participate in the implementation of an agency integration tool kit that allows grant-making agencies to retrieve applications from the Grants.gov site. (See article in last month’s Partners for more information about the Grants.gov initiative.)

The vision of Grants.gov and the NIH eRA CGAP project extends well beyond support for electronic application submission. The notion of implementing an end-to-end, electronic grants administration business process is at the heart of all development efforts. The benefits of the new technology, besides a streamlined application process, include post-receipt transactions such as automated notifications, corrections to applications, and renewals. Both grantors and grantees will profit. For example, the NIH plans to develop a transaction for the Notice of Grant Award that will enable the awardee to download the budget and terms as an XML-based file. The receipt of this structured data would make it possible for submitters to load this information directly into their institution’s grants management systems, resulting in improved data quality and considerable savings in time and effort.

New Password Policy to Take Effect

Effective this November, eRA will enforce a more stringent password policy to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to test, development and production servers and databases. The new eRA policy, issued on July 17, is consistent with NIH password policy and implements guidelines recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

Following are the highlights of new password requirements for Commons users. Go to http://era.nih.gov/docs/NIH_eRA_Password_Policy.pdf to view the complete document.

• End users must change their passwords at least every 180 days.     
• Password length must be at least eight (8) characters.     
• The password must contain a mixture of alpha, numeric and special characters.     
• The first and last characters must not be numeric.     
• The password cannot contain the user’s login name.     
• Passwords cannot be reused for a period of one year.     
• The account will be locked after five (5) consecutive unsuccessful login attempts.

If a user forgets his/her password, there is a handy link immediately below the login dialogue box on the Commons home page. After the user provides the account name and associated e-mail address, NIH will reset the password and e-mail a new, pre-expired password to the user. 

Missing Certifications Added to Institutional Profile

eRA recently expanded the Institutional Profile (IPF) record to include several key certifications that were mistakenly omitted. These certifications are part of the assurances and certifications required on the PHS 398 and PHS 2590 forms. At their earliest convenience, institution signing officials (SOs) should log on to the Commons to verify their certification data and make any necessary changes.

Effective immediately, grantees will not be able to submit electronic progress reports until the assurance and certification information in their institution’s IPF has been verified by an authorized business official. Regarding previously submitted eSNAPs, NIH will require that SOs sign a form stating that the grants are in compliance with NIH policy and federal regulations for:

• Human subjects  
• Research using human embryonic stem cells  
• Research on transplantation of human fetal tissue  
• Inclusion of women and minorities  
• Vertebrate animals  
• Research misconduct  
• Recombinant DNA and human gene transfer research

Commons Working Group to Convene This Month

Representatives from participating grantee institutions will meet with eRA staff to discuss the eRA Commons, electronic grant applications, security and priorities at the September 21 meeting of the Commons Working Group (CWG) in Washington, D.C. For more than two years, the CWG has played a critical role in shaping, evaluating and fine-tuning eRA electronic interfaces to the extramural NIH grantee community.

The upcoming CWG meeting will take place on Sunday, September 21, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., at the National Academy of Sciences Building, located at the intersection of C and 21^st Streets in Washington, D.C. NIH is holding its meeting in conjunction with the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) Conference, scheduled for September 22–23. eRA will present a progress report to the FDP on September 23 at 9:00 a.m. Go to http://thefdp.org/Meetings/FDP-Meeting-September-2003.html for more information about the FDP meetings.

Keeping Current on the Commons

Following are highlights of Commons enhancements that will be implemented on November 7.

Commons Base System

• Support for CGAP (see article in this issue).         
• Support for electronic submission of just-in-time (JIT) information and extensions. If eligible, a grant can be extended for up to one year. The SO will be able to change the end date using a new Commons grant extension screen until the last day of the project. See prototype screens at http://era.nih.gov/UI/FALL03/.      
• Implementation of new password security policy (see article in this issue).

eSNAP

• Addition of a third upload file to allow the PI to include Other Documentation with the Progress Report (e.g., mentor letters, pre-published citations, etc.).         
• Notification to the submitting SO when the eSNAP is received by NIH.         
• Option for creating an Inclusion Report Protocol for eSNAPs that require inclusion tracking but do not yet have the protocol in place.         
• Other internal enhancements to facilitate the preparation and submission process. 

Financial Status Report (FSR)

• Improved functionality for annual SNAP grants to foreign institutions.
• Support for two Award Document Number formats in the competitive grant segment.

Interagency Edison (iEdison)

• Verification that Fiscal Month has been defined in the IPF before allowing a utilization report for 2001 or later to be submitted. If the Fiscal Month is not defined, the system will display a message advising NIH staff to contact the institution’s SO.        
• When appropriate, patent reports can be added to an invention having a "BARRED" status.        
• Invention, patent, and utilization reports only will be available for update by one user at a time.        
• Support for multiple email addresses.        
• Addition of Indian Health Service as a participating agency.

Internet Assisted Review (IAR) 

• Improved performance.         
• Expansion of Active Account Y and N fields to indicate precise status of account (waiting for reviewer to complete account create and validate roles form, waiting for NIH Data Quality to activate account, active, declined).         
• Implementation of demo facility to train NIH staff and reviewers. 

Status

• Prototype of new directed query screens for the following searches: general, just-in-time, pending progress reports, recently awarded, training grants, fellowships and electronic submissions. See prototype screens at http://era.nih.gov/UI/FALL03/.    
• Prototype of Export-to-Excel feature.

Understanding Commons Roles

Security for the NIH eRA Commons is based on roles, predefined sets of privileges (for data access and actions) that are grouped together to facilitate assignment to users. The Commons system also enforces the concept of single point of ownership, i.e., only the creator of an institutional profile (IPF) or personal profile (PPF) has the authority to modify the profile. The following tables summarize the current Commons role-based structure:

• Signing Official (SO)   
• Administrative Official (AO)   
• Account Administrator (AA)   
• Principal Investigator (PI)   
• Financial Status Report (FSR)   
• Internet Assisted Review (IAR)   
• Assistant (ASST)

Once an account exists, authorized officials can add and remove roles using the “Maintain Accounts” option under “Administration.” For more information about Commons roles, contact David Wright at david.wright@nih.gov or 301-451-4349.